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Do you really enjoy litigation?

Most litigators, truth be told, do not. Based on my experience as a professional lawyer coach, there is a small percentage of lawyers who truly enjoy trial work. They love the strategy, challenge and competition it provides. But these attorneys are in the minority. The majority of lawyers who call themselves litigators, or trial lawyers, do not truly enjoy what they do.

There are reasons so many attorneys go into litigation:

It’s sexy. We grew up seeing lawyer shows on TV and in the movies. Heros in the courtroom, wrongs being righted, the innocent vindicated and the guilty convicted.

In law school we learned the nuts and bolts of litigation and may have tasted trial work in moot court competition.

There’s plenty of work. Law firms thrive on controversies and litigation is the bread and butter of many firms’ profits. Firms are always looking for new associates to handle litigation grunt work and provide a nice mark up in billings to corporate clients. Solos have plenty of opportunities to pick up a litigation case, or a few-there are lots of controversies out there.

There are plenty (relatively speaking) of jobs for litigators. If you want to do litigation, the odds of getting a job with a firm increase.

But it isn’t as glamorous as billed:

Big firm associates are lucky to first chair a trial in their first five years of law practice. Many litigation partners have had few jury trials.

Conversely, small firm attorneys and solos handling smaller cases may have the overwhelm of too many court appearances and trials.

Your schedule is not your own. Trial dates, discovery deadlines, etc. are for the most part out of your control and can take a toll on your personal life.

It is tedious. In complex litigation, document review, discovery, motion practice, etc. are pretty much what you do, especially as an associate.

An extremely interesting article is in the latest issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Today. It describes a study on the question of whether rainmakers are born or bred and what are the characteristics of a legal rainmaker. Are some lawyers just naturals? What is it that sets the highest practice development achievers apart? I have set out the article below with full credit and thanks to the author, Patricia K. Gillette.

While the criterion for rainmakers in this study, $4,000,000 in business, doesn’t fit most lawyers there are a couple of findings that are important to all attorneys who want to develop their law practice.

First, rainmakers know their clients business. They take the time to understand how the business works which gives them the opportunity to understand the problems of the business and how the law firm can help. In this way they can problem solve for the client, in the proper situation, by offering a legal solution which the lawyer can provide.

Second, they are interested in their clients as people.One of the most important facets of practice development is to get to know clients and prospective clients personally. One of my mantras, and one you have most likely heard many times before, is: “People do business with people they know and they like.” Do you get to know your clients and prospective clients personally? Many attorneys do not, believing that good legal work is all that is necessary. Not true. Clients expect good legal work and assume the quality will be there. But to decide which lawyer or firm to choose there needs to be a hook; a compelling reason to choose one firm over another.

Give these two tactics a try and see if you don’t develop new legal business.

Have a Great Practice!

Daniel Roberts

Professional Lawyer Coach

Rainmakers: Born or Bred?

By Patricia K. Gillette

Picture this scenario.

You go to a pitch. You are clearly one of the experts in the country on the subject of the pitch. You have a team that is especially well-oiled and has incredible depth. Your fee structure is competitive with peer firms. Your record on diversity and client service is sterling. The pitch goes really well.

Your competition is the other expert in the country on the subject of the pitch. They too have put a great team in place – with similar depth and expertise. They too have a competitive fee proposal and they too have been ranked highly by all the right places on diversity issues.

So, how does a client decide which firm will get the job?

That is what I was wondering one day sitting at a meeting listening to people go on and on about the tactics of rainmaking – writing articles, giving speeches, building your reputation, being strategic about lunches and dinners and social events with the right clients. And this question jumped into my mind: if developing business is this easy, why isn’t everyone a rainmaker?

I thought the answer was obvious: everyone isn’t a rainmaker because rainmaking is more than tactics. Rainmakers have something extra, something that differentiates them from the rest of the pack. There is a word for it, but lawyers don’t like it. Rainmakers are really good at sales.

Now I know that the word “sales” or “selling” connotes to many images of car dealers, infomercials, QVC, whatever. But in fact, that is what rainmaking is all about. That is what we do to get clients – we sell our services; we sell our reputations; we sell our brand. And, as distasteful as that may be to some people, the people who are the most successful at rainmaking are the people who have the characteristics of, well, sales people.

While I was convinced I was right, I had no data to support it. And we know how lawyers like data. So I contacted my friend and one of the founders of Lawyer Metrics, William Henderson of Indiana Law. He and his team agreed to research whether personal characteristics differentiate rainmakers from other lawyers.

We formed an Advisory Board, headed by me and composed of leaders from major law firms across the country. We gave the Lawyer Metrics team some guidance, and then, after two years, 300 behaviorial interviews, the administration of psychological tests to 86 rainmakers and client service partners, Lawyer Metrics published a report confirming that rainmakers do, in fact, have different personality traits from other lawyers.

The report looked at two categories of lawyers: rainmakers and client service partners. Generally, rainmakers were defined as those with at least $4 million in business. Client service partners are highly valued by the firm for their expertise, but – for the most part – do not have a sizeable book of business.

The research revealed that rainmakers tend to score higher and report consistently in interviews on the following traits or characteristics:

Engagement: which is a desire to be regularly engaged in an activity- usually work related;

Dominance: which is a tendency to exercise power and influence over others.

Motivating others

Risk taking

The research also confirmed that there is no difference in the characteristics of male and female rainmakers – they share the same traits.

Engagement and Dominance are the two personality characteristics most commonly found in rainmakers, and they are the most predictive of success as a rainmaker. These people can maintain a high level of activity for prolonged periods of time. They are uncomfortable when they don’t have enough to do. Some might say they are workaholics. Others might say they have a lot of energy. The point is, these people thrive on being busy. And they integrate the various parts of their busy lives – personal, pleasure, and business.

As a result, rainmakers know and understand the business of their clients, but they also are interested in their clients as people. Rainmakers connect their personal lives with business opportunities – many times without realizing it. Not necessarily to “make the sale,” but because they truly enjoy interacting with people – who then turn into clients.

Most rainmakers also excel as problem solvers. They grab the initiative and take ownership of client problems. When asked why they went to law school, they often answer that they enjoy business challenges. That is their focus.

The dominance of rainmakers also makes them decisive. They can see the big picture. This is in contrast to client service partners who are more detail-oriented, and tend to focus on the intellectual challenges of practicing law. In fact, a person scoring high on eagerness to learn or learning orientation is less likely to be a rainmaker and more likely to be a client service partner. Why? Because some client service partners will get stuck on a legal concept or stuck on the “rules,” which prevents them from coming up with a business solution. Rainmakers rarely fall into that trap.

Rainmakers are also motivated to team with their clients. By doing so, they are perceived as always putting the client’s interest first. Rainmakers are also able to motivate the members of their internal teams, because they are good at delegating and empowering the people who work with them. They give credit where credit is due and they trust their team members to take on increased responsibilities, listening to their input, encouraging them to act on their own

And finally, there is the risk-taking factor. This is a willingness to question established methods; to challenge the rules; and to be creative and flexible. They are confident of their abilities, so they will take risks by being out-of-the box thinkers. And, rainmakers are not deterred by rejection. So, when rainmakers are told “no” they hear it as “not now.”

The study also evaluated the backgrounds of people who are successful rainmakers. The results raise questions about many traditional notions of what makes a lawyer successful. For example, going to one of the top law schools is not necessarily predictive of success as a rainmaker; people from blue-collar families tend to be better rainmakers than those from privileged backgrounds.

What does this all mean? Are rainmakers born or bred? The answer is complicated. But this study gives all lawyers information that they should consider if they want to become rainmakers. The tactics of business development only get you so far. It is the ability to form trusted advisor relationships that turns a good business developer in to a great one. And those are the people who make it rain.

About the Author

Patricia K. Gillette (@Pat_Gillette) is a partner with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff LLP(@Orrick) in San Francisco.

I have been a fan of Flipboard for quite a while. For those of you who don’t know, Flipboard aggregates internet content and displays it in a magazine style on tablets and smart phones. You can customize the content you receive by category as well as by participating print magazine. It is similar to Google News but much more customizable and attractive. Read More→

A couple of years ago I posted a series of three blog posts designed to help fellow attorneys 1.) examine their existing law practice 2.) evaluate what changes in practice areas they want to make and 3.) make those changes. I hope they were helpful, I received a lot of positive feedback. Read More→

You have worked hard getting through law school, finding a job and now putting in the hours at your law firm. But what about partnership? How do you get there? Here are five tips that will help:

1. Know the criteria.

If you don’t know what is expected how can you possibly achieve the goal of partnership? Knowledge is power. It is important to know what the firm expects by way of hours, marketing efforts, pro bono investment, bar activities, etc. It is also important to know the practice area specific requirements. For example, in litigation how many hearings, trials, depositions, motion and briefs are expected. Read More→

How is your law practice going? Are you where you wanted to be in your legal career? The chances are that there is room for improvement but how do you determine where to start? You probably have at least a general idea. However, before you take steps to improve your law practice or make a significant change in your legal career, wouldn’t it be a good idea to get the whole picture? You could then analyze what needs to be done and what should be done first.

Several years ago I developed an assessment for lawyers, theLawyer’s Life Assessment, to help attorneys identify areas where things are working well and areas in need of change. There are 100 statements in the assessment. For each statement the lawyer scores his level of agreement on a 1 to 10 scale. The statements cover both practice and career factors. They also include statements related to one’s personal life as personal characteristics and habits can significantly affect one’s professional life. The Lawyer’s Life Assessment has been well received and attorneys have told me that it has been helpful in pinpointing what changes to make as well as confirming what is working well.

Thanks to my web guru I now have an interactive version of the assessment on the Coaching for Lawyers website . Before it was necessary to download and print out the assessment, then add the score for each section and compute the average. Now you can go to the webpage, enter the score for each statement and the total score and average for each section is computed for you. In a short amount of time a lawyer can have a pretty good idea of what is working well and where improvements need to be made.

I encourage you take the Lawyers Life Interactive (there is also a PDF version on the website if you would rather download and work offline). This assessment should help you identify areas to work on. You can then prioritize and make an action plan of the specific steps needed to reach your improvement goal. Of course, you have to follow the plan!